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Smokio, described as the world’s first connected electronic cigarette that synchronizes automatically with users’ smartphones, said yesterday that it had formed a partnership with the Asian American Trade Association Council (AATAC), an organization designed to build partnerships between convenience stores and manufacturers.

“We are very proud to partner with AATAC to be able to offer Smokio to such a large number of retail outlets across the US,” said Alexandre Prot, co-founder of Smokio, in a press note. “Convenience stores are one of the most important channels for our company, as these types of stores are where a majority of electronic cigarettes are sold.”

Smokio is said to have been developed so as to synchronize automatically with users’ smartphones with the aim of monitoring consumption and tracking the health and economic benefits a user is experiencing by transitioning from tobacco cigarettes to electronic cigarettes.

A federal judge ruled yesterday that the US Food and Drug Administration cannot use an advisory panel’s 2011 report on menthol cigarettes because its members had conflicts of interest, according to a story by Michael Felberbaum for the ColumbusRepublic.

Felberbaum reported that while the agency had since conducted an independent review on the public health impact of menthol cigarettes, the ruling could hinder the FDA’s ability to defend any future regulation of such products.

US District Court Judge Richard Leon ordered the FDA to reconstitute the tobacco panel and barred the agency from using its older report on menthol cigarettes.

Lorillard and Reynolds American sued the agency in 2011 alleging conflicts of interest and bias by several members of the panel tasked with advising the FDA on tobacco-related issues.

The agency argued that the panel met federal standards and that the cigarette manufacturers’ ‘alleged injuries are entirely speculative’.

In his order, Leon said the FDA erred in determining that the members didn’t have conflicts of interest and therefore, the agency’s appointment of those members was “arbitrary and capricious”, and tainted both the panel and its work.

“Conflicts of interest – whether actual or perceived – undermine the public’s confidence in the agency’s decision-making process and render its final product suspect, at best,” he wrote.

The Aquitine Group yesterday launched nation-wide in the US Aqua-tineTM, which is described as a colorless, odorless homeopathic liquid nicotine formulation designed specifically to satisfy tobacco cravings.

According to a press not issued through PRNewswire, Aqua-tine is an alternative to traditional and electronic cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco.

‘The product comes in airtight 2.4 ml individually sealed packets,’ the press note said. ‘The liquid contents of each Aqua-tine packet are mixed into a beverage of one’s choice and then consumed.’

The company said that up to two of the 2.4 ml packets could be consumed each hour, though it does not recommend using Aqua-tine with energy drinks or alcohol.

President Benigno Aquino III has signed a law that will require the inclusion of graphic health warnings on cigarette packs sold in the Philippines, according to a story at GMA News Online.

The new law (R.A. 10643: ‘An Act to Effectively Instil Health Consciousness through Graphic Health Warnings on Tobacco Products’) will require that the bottom half of the front and back panels of cigarette packs are given over to the warnings.

There will be 12 different warnings, which are scheduled to be changed every two years.

Research led by the UK’s University of York has highlighted the potential cancer risk in non-smokers – particularly young children – of tobacco smoke gases and particles deposited on surfaces and dust in the home, according to a HealthCanal story.

The story said that until now, the risks of this exposure to what is known as ‘third hand tobacco smoke’ have been ‘highly uncertain’ and not considered in public policy.

‘However, a new study published in the journal, Environment International, has estimated for the first time the potential cancer risk by age group through non-dietary ingestion and dermal exposure to third hand smoke,’ the story said.